Dronfield 2nd XV vs Belper 2nd XV - President's Trophy First Round
After braving the potholes, pitfalls, landmines and gun turrets of the Dronfield car park and escaping from the guards patrolling Stalag changing room 17, the Mighty Belper 2nd XV started the long trek toward the pitch where they would do battle with dreaded Dronfield Hun in the first round of the President's Trophy.
Welcoming temporary team-mates Andy and Akers to the Belper cause the lads began their campaign to progress to round two. It was a day for the backs to shine as they ran circles around their opposite numbers creating some excellent and exciting flowing rugby. The forwards did their part to providing them with the platforms from which to build their attacks against the Dronfield defences.
The lineouts on the day were near faultless with both Akers and Tim Yule catching and passing the ball to Scrum-Half Grant Nicholson effortlessly. One such line out resulted in the ball floating from back to back ending in one of two tries from Winger Leon Griffiths. The backs really were a powerhouse on the day Simon Cook, James Emslee and Andy Ireland all had tremendous runs taking on and knocking over any that got in their way, providing fellow winger Phil "The Noodle Thief" Shepherd with the means to score Belper's third and final try.
The second half however was a different story, it was quite literally an uphill struggle. Injury and fatigue started to take its toll on the team and Dronfield were soon mounting their own counter attack. The Belper lads mounted a brave defence which at times was almost impenetrable. But the constant barrage soon weakend those defences allowing Dronfield to break through and pile on the points.
Final score Belper 15 - Dronfield 30 or 40 odd points. As with all good war stories, the team that appears to be winning and doing well at the start are eventually overthrown by the struggling underdogs and sadly the same was true again on the battlefields of Dronfield. For us the war is over, yet those brave Belper boys can hold their heads up high knowing that they tried their best and that there will always be a corner of a Dronfield field that will be forever Belper.
The less said about Mr Phil Shepherd and accomplice Grant Nicholson's heinous noodle based crimes perpertrated on a shocked and appalled Martin Sunley the better.
Man of the match, as nominated by Dronfield, was Simon Cook.
| 1 Matt O'Mara | 10 James Emslee |
| 2 Peter Smith | 11 Leon Griffiths |
| 3 Andy Ryan | 12 Simon Cook |
| 4 Akers | 13 Andy Ireland |
| 5 Phil Holmes | 14 Phil Shepherd |
| 6 Tim Yule | 15 Morgan Day |
| 7 Noel Woodward | 16 Rob Parker |
| 8 Andy York | 17 Martin Sunley |
| 9 Grant Nicholson |